7.60 million watched the UK transmission of Death in Heaven according to consolidated figures available today, which include those recording the programme and watching within one week of transmission.

The final chart position should be available later in the week.

Doctor Who's replacement on Saturday nights, Atlantis, had an unofficial overnight ratings of 4.54 million viewers and was 5th for the day.

The BBC has aired a preview of the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas Special during the Children in Need telethon on BBC One.

Doctor Who: Dark Water finished as the 15th most watched programme on British Television, according to figures from Barb.

The episode had an official 27.4% share of the total TV audience.

Top for the week was Strictly Come Dancing which had 10.93 million watching, once more beating ITV's Downton Abbey, which had 10.77 million viewers.

Doctor Who was the 7th highest rated programme on BBC Television.

Story updated to remove a double reference to Countryfile.

This story contains plot spoilers from the final episode of Series 8.


Steven Moffat has been talking about the current series of Doctor Who, at a special Royal Television Society event in London.

The showrunner was appearing at the Doctor Who: Anatomy of a hit event alongside his fellow executive producer Brian Minchin, producer Nikki Wilson, director of Deep Breath Ben Wheatley and special effects producer Rob Mayor, to discuss how the twelfth Doctor emerged from script to screen.

Moffat said how the casting of Peter Capaldi had been inevitable as soon as the name was mentioned. We announced the actor to a nation who already knew.. He agreed that the casting of an older Doctor may have unsettled the audience that had grown up with David Tennant and Matt Smith in the role. We definitely ruffled their feathers by changing the actors. Shows don't die when they change, they die when they are comfortable. If you're watching it saying I'm appalled! Well then, you're still watching it!

He said casting for Danny Pink had been very difficult because all the actors who auditioned had been so good. He said making Doctor Who is always difficult because each story is so different. The terrifying thing is you discover at the start of every new show that you've learnt nothing in making Doctor Who.

Steven Moffat said he felt no guilt about lying about the return of the Master at an event for the launch of Deep Breath. It would have ruined the surprise. Because the reveal was filmed outside St Paul's Cathedral in London the actors mimed their lines and recorded the dialog later. To try to keep the secret the team even went to the trouble of recoding as scene where Missy identifies herself as a Random Access Neural Interface, hoping fans would pick up on the acronym and spread the word that the Rani was returning. Whenever I arrange skullduggery, no-one ever notices.

Moffat revealed he has tried the misdirection trick before, with similar success. When we did Day of the Doctor, we went to the trouble of having John Hurt’s character referred to as Omega throughout. Is nobody stealing scripts these days?

Moffat was asked about the killing of Osgood in the final episode, defending it as necessary. I was aware that the Master as a character gets cuddly very fast. If we're going to bring her back, she's got to kill someone in a. horrible way. Otherwise she becomes a slightly more naughty Doctor

Director Ben Wheatley said he was disappointed by the leaking of unfinished early episodes from Series 8 onto the internet as some fans first view of the new Doctor would be in an unfinished episode. The leaked version of Deep Breath was in Black and White. Steven Moffat admited, as a fan, he would have looked. I would have had to go and look. It would have ruined it for myself, but it was a new Doctor..

The showrunner was asked about the audience reaction to Series eight, in particular perceived falling ratings. The figures are the same - they're just the same, he said. If by 'ratings', you mean the number of people who watch the show... they are the same. The number of people who watch on Doctor Who on iPlayer has trebled. The way people watch it has changed but viewing figures have remained the same.. Brian Minchin also pointed out how well the show is doing globally now, for example the audience watching on BBC America is up 30 percent since Capaldi took over the role of the Doctor.

The team are now working on preparation for Series Nine, with Steven Moffat currently writing episode One. The list of writers has been decided but the details are secret for now.

A full set of pictures from the event is on the RTS Facebook page

This Friday's Children in Need will feature the first preview for the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special, featuring Peter Capaldi as the Doctor with Nick Frost as Santa Claus.



Children in Need is on this coming Friday from 7:30pm on BBC One.

German DVD distributer Polyband announced on their Facebook page that they are postponing the release of the Series 8 boxed set from November 2014 to late February 2015.

Polyband originally planned to include the Christmas Special The Time of the Doctor on the Series 8 set. Due to unforeseen problems with the German dub of Series 8, they are now going to release the Special on its own in December.

The German Series 8 set will include all the UK special features. Additionally, the cinema prequel to Deep Breath and the yet-to-be-broadcast Christmas Special of 2014 will also be included, according to a statement by Polyband on Facebook.

Doctor Who: Die Zeit des Doktors (Time of the Doctor) will be released on 22nd December 2014 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon Germany on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Doctor Who Death in Heaven had an Audience Appreciation Index or AI score of 83.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. The score, out of a hundred, is compiled by a specially selected panel of around 5,000 people who go online and rate and comment on programmes. The episode scored highest with those aged 35-54 and lowest with those aged 16-34. It was enjoyed slightly more by female viewers.

On Sunday, three programmes scored higher than Doctor Who, pushing the show into 23rd place for the week. Final figures and chart position will be released next week.

The Sunday repeat of Death in Heaven on BBC Three had an overnight estimate of 0.20 million viewers, a 0.8% share of the audience.

Death in Heaven averaged an excellent 995,000 national viewers in Australia (these figures include the five major capital cities and regional and rural viewers). It was the highest rating drama of the day and the seventh highest rating program of the day overall. Excluding regional and rural viewers, this story averaged 620,000 viewers in the five major Australian capital cities and was also the highest rating drama of the day and the eighth highest rating program of the day overall in the big cities. These ratings do not include time shifted viewers.

7.34 million watched the UK transmission of Dark Water according to consolidated figures available today, which include those recording the programme and watching within one week of transmission.

The final chart position should be available later in the week.

Doctor Who: Death in Heaven had an overnight audience of 5.45 million viewers, according to unofficial figures.

The rating, a 23.3% share of the total TV audience, made Doctor Who the third most watched programme of Saturday Night.

Top was Strictly Come Dancing with 9.37 million watching, while The X Factor had 7.9 million viewers. Pointless Celebrities, which edged ahead of Doctor Who last week, had 4.9 million.

Doctor Who is currently the 20th most watched programme of the week.